Nice fun, but pricey
THE five programs in Fun to Learn (Shards Software) for 6 to
12-year-olds are Count, Mixer, Calculator, Starship and Code-breaker.
The presentation is excellent, although most of the basic ideas
are rather unimaginative.
The opening display has good colourful graphics and sound which
would capture the attention of the user immediately.
Count displays a random number of characters on the screen,
and you have to count how many you can see.
The computer tells you if you're right or not, whether your
response is fast or slow and updates the score.
Mixer is an anagram program in which one has to guess a mixed
up word. Clues can be sought, but each one reduces the number
of points scored.
Words of up to nine letters are used, and one can also enter
words of one's own for a friend to guess at.
Calculator gives practice in adding, subtraction, division or
multiplication.
Starship is the best of all, a "Hangman" type game.
A colourful Starship and alien appear on the screen, with only
a building between them.
You have to guess letters making up a mystery word, or the alien
zaps a laser beam towards you.
The graphics are simple but effective, as are the sound effects.
The final program, Code-breaker, uses simple letter-for-letter
codes to be solved. You can create your own codes, or type in
words and sentences to be coded for you.
This is a nice collection but I find it rather overpriced.
Jane Jackson
